1) Places encountered on my road...
Darwin - The Old Qantas Hangar is a heritage-listed former hangar and now museum at Landsborough Highway, Longreach, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1922. It is now part of the Qantas Founders Outback Museum. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
Citroën Kégresse Type PT4: 1924 >1925. Based upon the10hp (B2/B10/B12) and the direct successor of the K1. Easily recognizable from the K1 by the flat radiator with its 9 seperate elements. Also commercialized for many purposes and military use. The technical specifications and design of the Kegresse system differs only little from the K1.
In 1923 Georges-Marie Haardt with Louis Audoin-Dubreuil organized La Croisière Noire (the Black Cruise), a 28,000-kilometer journey across Africa. From Colomb-Béchar in Algeria, a team of 16 members in eight half-tracked vehicles Citroën type P4, crossed Algeria, Niger, Chad, center Africa, Oubangui-Chari and the Belgian Congo. In Kampala, the column split into four groups and reached the Indian Ocean, each taking a different route, towards Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam, Mozambique and the Cape.
The "John Flynn Place Museum" (the founder of the Royal flying doctors) is located in the small town of Cloncurry
The Reverend John Flynn had worked in rural and remote areas of Victoria and was commissioned by the Presbyterian Church to look at the needs of people living in the outback. His report to the Presbyterian Assembly in 1912 resulted in the establishment of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM). In 1928, he formed the AIM Aerial Medical Service, a one-year experiment based in Cloncurry, Queensland. This experiment later became The Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an air medical service in Australia. It is a non-profit organisation that provides emergency and primary health care services for those living in rural, remote and regional areas of Australia who cannot access a hospital or general practice due to the vast distances of the Outback. It is one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world.
The Historic Village Herberton is an open-air historic museum in Herberton, Queensland. It was opened in 1977 by then Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen and was owned by Harry and Ellen Skenner, who closed it in April 2003 due to escalating public liability costs. It was reopened in 2009 by Just Jeans retail chain store founder Craig Kimberly and his wife Connie.
The Village is located on a 16-acre site and comprises over 50 historically restored period buildings dating back to the 1860s, set out like a tin mining town. It is the largest private collection of its type in Queensland.
=> There are many more pictures, click here to see them!
From Cairns, a boat excursion to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Listed as World Heritage by UNESCO
A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which helps to limit the impact of human use, such as fishing and tourism. Other environmental pressures on the reef and its ecosystem include runoff of manmade pollutants, climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching, dumping of dredging sludge and cyclic population outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish. According to a study published in October 2012 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985, a finding reaffirmed by a 2020 study which found over half of the reef's coral cover to have been lost between 1995 and 2017, with the effects of a widespread 2020 bleaching event not yet quantified.
The Great Barrier Reef has long been known to and used by the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is an important part of local groups' cultures and spirituality.
The reef is a very popular destination for tourists, especially in the Whitsunday Islands and Cairns regions.
Inflatable boat for the scuba divers
Glass bottom boat... for the others :-)
2) Planet Earth
3) I WAS there
4) I SLEPT there
And my FAVORITE hostel!
5) Miscellaneous
Warning : ONLY click here if you are ready to see a serie of humoristic posters...
6) A few "technical" pictures...
My Land Roamer needed a few more bits of equipment before tackling the rest of the trip. I had a nice place to do this in Darwin.
A/ Anticipating to cross the Australian desert, I fitted on the chassis (under the camper cell), an air compressor that would be needed to reflate my tires after having them aired-down for the sand dunes.
And on this picture, with a protective cover
B/ As it's so hot in parts of Australia, I fitted an exhaust fan near the compressor of my fridge. This will enable it to function more efficiently and consume less electricity.
C/ As it's so hot in parts of Australia and as I do not have air-conditioning in my Roamer, I fitted a powerful LED light bar enabling me to drive at night comfortably. Most Autralians avoid driving at night as there is a definite danger of hitting wildlife when driving at high speeds; as my Roamer is slow (75-80 kph), I do NOT have this problem!
The stainless steel "guiding pieces" (on each side) are there in order that vibrations from the light bar would not deteriorate the sheet metal of the opening bonnet which was not designed to have extra weight on it.
D/ The back storage space (under my bed) was never fully organized to store various bits and pieces and my mini-motorcycle. I fitted some plywood compartiments to keep everything in place: MUCH better now.
E/ Mosquitoes can be annoying : I fitted mosquito netting on the back "windows", next to my bed. Those windows are available only if I open 1 or 2 of the back doors; this cannot be done in a city.
F/ On corrugated roads, whatever is inside your vehicle is subjected to lots of vibrations. I fitted cushioning material inside my drawers to keep items fom rubbing too harshly against the drawers.
